Laying foundations

The family of Gold Coast bomb victim Robert Thwaites will honour his memory by creating a foundation to care for Balinese orphans whose parents were killed in the explosion.

Putting aside their own grief over the death of Bob, the Thwaites family yesterday turned its energy to creating the foundation to help orphans of the terrorist attack.

"We're turning a negative into a positive," said younger brother Ben. "We plan to build accommodation for the poor Balinese kids who have lost their parents because they are the ones that are affected.

"The kids are the ones that need direction. They are the ones that have lost everything."

Bob's parents, Geoff and Syam, returned home yesterday after identifying his body. The family runs a Jakarta-based engineering company and Bob, 24, was being groomed to take over. Geoff, a Vietnam veteran, said the carnage was worse than he'd seen in the war.

Bob Thwaites was in Bali playing with an expatriate rugby union team. Griffith University, where Bob was top of his class in civil engineering, will offer a scholarship in his name.